Elisa Chan

Assistant Professor of Marketing at Ecole Hoteliere de Lausanne (EHL)

Prior to joining EHL, Elisa was Project Officer at the Center for Hospitality and Real Estate Research at the Chinese University of Hong Kong where she oversaw research projects with various companies in the hospitality industry. She was also involved in the Center’s executive training programs for various international hotel brands in collaboration with Universities in China and the United States. While she was pursuing her Ph.D. at Cornell University, Elisa was involved in a number of projects with industry partners on a variety of topics including employee wellness, hospitality data management and data mining, and mobile applications adoption in hotels.

Many destinations around the world, be it Singapore or Hong Kong in Asia or London and Milan in Europe, promote themselves as shopping 'paradises' to attract tourists and this marketing strategy has become an important economic driver globally.

Bloomberg recently released the latest edition of its index which ranks locations around the world - taking into consideration some 120 cities - according to rates charged by Airbnb. Among its main findings were that although Miami and Boston took the top two places for the second year running regarding Airbnb pricing, Middle East destinations are now some of the most expensive in the world, with locations such as Tel Aviv, Dubai, Jerusalem, Riyadh and Kuwait City among the top 15.

How should hotels be reaching out to potential customers? When it comes to distribution channels, the discussion should never just be limited to the hotel's relationship with online travel agencies or OTAs.

The need to choose nutritious foods and limit unnecessary calories has become a particular focus in developed nations in recent years, as concerns have grown over the negative health effects of overeating.